Circular No 696

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 7 of March 2015 No. 696

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Dear Friends,

Soon travelling to Europe to see my sons.

Shall continue informing you on events.

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From: Glen Mckoy <mckoy43glen@hotmail.com>

Date: 14 February 2015 at 09:42

Subject: FW: Happy Belated Birthday Sir Bandit.

Happy Belated Birthday Sir Bandit,

I was preoccupied yesterday and completely forgot your birthday.  

Thank You Sir Sarkis, he picked it out, I did not get a chance to see it yet, as I thought that I should send it out to you first, then I will look at it later.  

I told him this is a special occasion, so I hope you like same.  

Anyhow some of the other guys also sent in a few jokes, 

I did not find funny really, but they said you would like.  

Anyhow my brother, you really make our world a better place to have fun, enjoy and be merry. 

Just wanted to say we still love yuh hombre ha! ha!    

Have a good one, see yuh @ The Club-  Cheers -  

Glen. 

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From: jon@goldings.net

Subject: ATTENTION ALL OLD BOYS!

Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2015 20:44:45 +0000

George,

Good summing up.  

But people are busy these days and get more than enough emails - far less feeling obliged to have to respond to circulars.

What I think might be a good idea for all of us to confirm to the champion of our community, Ladislao is this:

Once per year (at least) we need to confirm we are still here and keen to follow the news he generously gives his time to publishing.

We all have to take our hats off (especially but not exclusively) to Ladislao (and Nigel Boos) for all the great work they have done behind the scenes to keep the community alive over so many years.

So maybe Ladislao (or whoever is in charge of the mailing list) should send a special email to all members at say 2 weeks before Christmas or after New Year (when the rush of other emails is not so bad).

This will be simply a roll call with a quick response option to headcount the followers.

More importantly to also ask them to re-mail the reminder to the ex Mount boys they are in regular contact with. Just in case they did not get the email from Sir Ladislao!

People change emails and often the Ladislao emails may go to their junk mail files unintentionally.

So a second level of penetration is necessary and it will also regenerate the list.

Just my engineering thought process!!

Hope we get the necessary commitment once per year since that will create sustainability until we pass on to the next pasture where our other old boy friends have gone!!

Best regards

Jon

Jon Golding

6 Daver Court
Chelsea Manor Street
London SW3 3TS, England

( 020 7376 7474 (Direct)
( 079 100 48956 (Mob)
* jon@goldings.net

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From: amickiew@att.net

Subject: MSB - MARCH 2015 REFLECTIONS

Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2015 08:26:40 -0600

Hi Ladislao,

Offering a few thoughts of why contributions to Circulars are dramatically decreasing:

·Most of everything that could be written about our years there has probably already been shared.

·Many have gone to heaven, are ill or are unable to communicate

·Many simply do not care for personal reasons.

·Relative very few contribute regularly

·For many, apparently the Abbey School was not a significant part of their past

·Some have bad memories that they would prefer not to re-live

·Apparently there is a discomfort by many in sharing their current state and no interest by others to be aware about it.

·Probably most of us only remember our classmates and cannot relate to the younger and older alumni

Relatively little interest to hold reunion last year is probably a true reflection of where most of the alumni are today vis-à-vis their youth at the mount. 

Looking at the other mediums that have been tried like Facebook and LinkedIn, my perception is that participation and interest has been minimal.

I hope and pray that I am wrong…….let’s see how others respond to this note which is generally negative and “depressive” in nature.

The challenge is to identify new topics that will be of interest to the majority and catalyze the interest  of our alumni…….personally I do not have any magical answers. 

In today’s technical work Twitter,

Whats Up and other instant messaging apps seem to be very popular with the younger generations……perhaps we can give it a try.

One more time, muchisimas gracias for everything that you do to keep us engaged.

May God bless all mount “boys” on earth, Heaven and in- between,

George Mickiewicz

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From: Jorge Iwaszkiewicz <jjmiwaszkiewicz@hotmail.com>

Date: 2015-03-04 21:46 GMT-04:30

Subject: MSB-Photography Club?

Saludos:

Me estaba tratando de acordar, pero habia un Club (?) de Fotografia cuando yo estaba en MSB y creo que era el padre benedict quien nos guiaba en esto.

Teniamos un "cuartito" creo que cerca de la panaderia-no estoy seguro ahora.

?Alguien se acuerda algo de esto? 

Tienes algo o alguien sabria de esto?

Saludos

Jorge Iwaszkiewicz

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SCOUTING AT ABBEY SCHOOL

Maybe it’s because we grew up in the post WWII era, a time when uniformed soldiers were on every movie screen and were great role-models for us young ones. Maybe it’s because we loved to parade in our khakis, black and gold scarf toggled at the neck, badges there to show as proof of achievement. Or maybe we all simply enjoyed the challenge and the fun associated with scouting. But for sure, Scouting at the Abbey School was a unique experience.

I believe it is true to say that we had more Queen Scouts than perhaps any other Scout Troop in the island. But what else would one expect than a fantastic record, with a Scout Master like Fr. Ildefonse in charge, a mighty man among men, followed after his resignation by the friendly, humble and caring Fr. Cuthbert, who had to learn everything about scouting from “scratch”, as the Canadians say.

Sunday morning band practice was something to which we looked forward, bringing with it, as it did, noise, music (of a type), discipline, and great efforts by our band to maintain a high quality of martial tempo. The trumpeters, who in my day included John Golding, Juan Marini, Pablo Figuera, Dennis Gurley, and others, led by Manuel Prada, set a wonderful, piercing tune, against the rat-tat-tat-tat, rat-tat-tat-tat, ah-rat, ah-rat, ah-rat-tat-tat-tat beating of the side drums, played by (fill in the blanks, fellas, I can’t even remember the names), and backed by the Big Base Drum which was my job. (Wasn’t Stephen Clerk my understudy? I know he was involved, but exactly in which capacity eludes me now.) Frankly, I had the easiest job, as  all I had to do was to hit the thing hard and keep time with everyone else. We marched around the School a few times, much to the annoyance of the volleyballers who had to pause in their game as we ducked under the net, and it was a blessed relief to everyone when, finally, we set off down the hill and along the roadway to entertain / annoy the rest of Trinidad and the monks of MSB. It was always a highlight of the parade when Mike Howard was invited to step out in front of the band, with his silver baton (a thing with a heavy wooden ball at the top end). Tall as he was, Mike led the parade from the front and inspired us with his wonderful, fancy marching style and handling of his baton.

Camping with the 1^st Mount St. Benedict Scout Troop was an experience never to be forgotten. Fr. Ildefonse would choose his camping ground, after much consultation with the Scout Commissioner, local landowners, and I suppose, our Troop Leader, Gerard Pampellone, and plans would be made. Each Patrol Leader (mine was “Woodpeckers”) was responsible for ensuring that an adequate number of pots, pans, skillets, mugs, plates, cutlery, tents, poles, pegs, mallets, shovels, ropes, semaphore flags, etc. were packed into our “Patrol Boxes” and readied for departure. On the big day, we’d board the bus and accompanying cars in our uniforms and head out for a few days of glorious adventure.

On site, the routine began, with unloading, unpacking, distributing, checking, choosing Patrol sites, pitching tents, cutting bamboo, building trestle tables, making gadgets, cooking, inspections, hiking, mealtimes, camp-fires, games and of course, sleeping. Each day began with a “Wake-Up” call, followed in short order by Holy Mass, from the back of Fr. Ildefonse’s / Fr. Cuthbert’s Volkswagen van. The back of the van was set up as an altar, and (these were pre-Vatican II days, so the priest had his back to us, facing into the van) we stood around respectfully as the holy sacrifice was offered, in Latin.

We camped at a number of memorable sites all over Trinidad and Tobago, and I vividly recall one camp in Tobago, in 1961. I think, when Mr. Bishop invited us to come to Tobago as guests of the Tobago Scout Association. The land chosen for us was a concave basin, and we were positioned at the very base of the basin. Mr. Bishop brought over the largest “grass-cutter” I’d ever seen (which he probably used to cut the bush between his coconut trees), a huge apparatus pulled behind his tractor. In no time at all, the area was cleared and we began to set up camp, pitching tents randomly around the inside of the basin. We cooked supper and were preparing for bed when the heavens opened up. Rain fell bucket a drop for the entire night and the water rose inch by inch inside of the tents. Everything was soaked, in fact, everything was underwater, and we were cold and miserable. An SOS call was sent out, presumably by Fr. Cuthbert, and in the middle of the night, cars began to arrive to extricate us from the bog which our campsite had become. We were taken to a local school-house and offered accommodation in a few of the classrooms, which thankfully were dry. We slept blissfully into the morning, all semblance of order having temporarily disappeared. But not for long.. . . . . . . as soon as we had woken up and cooked breakfast, back we went to the campsite to salvage everything, travelling back and forth in Mr. Bishop’s tractor-trailer unit to a new campsite chosen for us, a lovely spot right on the water’s edge, with a beautiful view of sea and sand as only those who know and love Tobago can understand. A very memorable camp indeed.

And so the years have flown. We graduated from Abbey School and moved on with our lives. Some of us went on to Form 6 at St. Mary’s, others attended Canadian, American, British and Venezuelan Universities, among others, and settled down, some with families, others not, but all retaining somewhere, in the backs of their minds, distant, lingering memories of those happy days of our youth, when we were ready to take on the world.

Ladislao Kertesz has been asking for someone to write something about Scouting at Mount, for the benefit of us all, and I have tried to fulfil his request. I knew that somewhere among my albums I still had a small collection of photographs which I had taken with my box camera, and I’ve dug them up. Hopefully, some of you guys will recognize yourselves. Hopefully, these pictures will remind you of where we’ve been together. Perhaps some of you may feel inspired to write about your own memories of MSB and the Abbey School.

At any rate, here they are, for your enjoyment. I recognize a number of the guys from these photos, but perhaps not everyone, so help me out, if you will:

Best regards,

Nigel

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Photos:

Bandit p16 The Early Times

The three LADISLAO in madrid

53UN0001SCOUTS

With my son Jozsef in Valencia